Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Make yourself comfortable; light a candle to mark the time as different from your other activities. Close your eyes and breathe deeply and perhaps repeat a word or phrase to separate you from the activities of the day.
Allow images of extreme economic poverty to pass through your mind. What do you see? Are these scenes you have witnessed, lived, read about or seen depicted in a movie or on television? How do these images make you feel? In what ways do they make you uncomfortable? In what ways do they make you feel inspired or called to make a difference?
Charles Dickens' close, loving observation and warm humor made extreme poverty less painful to recognize and more compelling to fight against. In today's session, how can you help children welcome and respond faithfully to information about the lives of people who are our society's have-nots?